Editorial: Attendance is important for city councillors

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Calgarians understand that city councillors live busy lives. That’s partially why the job pays well and comes with a budget for office staff, along with plenty of perks.

It’s expected, though, that they’ll live up to their commitments by not only faithfully attending council and committee meetings, but showing up to represent Calgarians at the other boards and bodies that councillors are appointed to.

Particularly disconcerting is attendance at meetings of the Calgary police commission. Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart was appointed to the police commission in 2008. She maintained an 85 per cent attendance record during her first four years as a member, but has missed half of the meetings since 2012.

Police commissioners are “responsible for the general supervision” of the Calgary Police Service and should “endeavour to attend all meetings,” according to the city’s own bylaw. Given the importance of the oversight body, being present at its deliberations must be a priority; that’s especially true given the accusations of misconduct among members of the police department in recent months.

City council members should live up to the expectations they’ve set for themselves, or admit the demands are too much

Coun. Shane Keating sat on the police commission from 2012 to 2014 and faults an overcrowded and overlapping meeting schedule for him missing more than half of its regular meetings.

“At the time … I was sitting on 12 committees,” said Keating. “It was hugely difficult to get to absolutely everything.”

One can feel some sympathy for Colley-Uquhart and Keating, but it doesn’t look good.

“If it’s important to have governance and oversight by city council, then they ought to be scheduling to make it possible for councillors to attend without hardship,” says Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University.

She’s right. Instead of blithely having councillors take on obligations they apparently can’t be expected to fulfil, they should look at reducing the number of commitments, perhaps appointing a single council representative to a body such as the police commission instead of two — with the understanding the person must attend every meeting. They could also ensure the workload is distributed more fairly.

Let’s remember that this council and the politicians who preceded them are responsible for the structure they’ve created and the obligations they’ve established for themselves. They choose, for example, to spend several hours listening to routine secondary suite applications rather than crafting a firm set of guidelines and handing the responsibility off to administration.

City council members should live up to the expectations they’ve set for themselves, or admit the demands are too much. They’re not doing anybody any favours by leaving a vacant seat.